Harrison Birtwistle

4 pieces since 2011.

4 pieces
16 years

Lovely and never violent

There was a lot expectation about the new opera by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp. Their previous collaboration, Written on Skin, was an enormous critical and public success,  earning the work a place in the exclusive club of 21th century classics with selected works by Saariaho, Heggie and Birtwistle. 

We were dead, you know

The setting: a dark plaza extending directly in front of a storied opera house. The time: just after a ho-hum revival of something Puccini. The crowd streams out, moderately satisfied but also far from bowled over. A group open to a proposition, you could say.  

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